1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state imaging apparatus and an imaging system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-26302 discloses forming semiconductor circuits on rectangular semiconductor substrates in various sizes cut out from an ingot and combining the rectangular semiconductor substrates to manufacture a large-area radiation imaging apparatus. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-344809 discloses coupling a plurality of image sensors and arranging a vertical shift register and a horizontal shift register in the effective area of each image sensor.
When forming a large-area solid-state imaging apparatus by coupling a plurality of chips (corresponding to the rectangular semiconductor substrates with the semiconductor circuits in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-26302 or the image sensors in patent reference 2), the area of each chip is preferably large. However, as the chip area increases, the problem of a signal delay caused by the parasitic resistance or the parasitic capacitance of signal lines surfaces, limiting the driving frequency. However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2002-26302 and 2002-344809 do not consider this problem at all.